Search This Blog

Subscribe to this blog

Follow by Email

Excursions: Las Vegas

To invoke an overused phrase, I love to travel. Periodically I need to get out and explore new places, not only for the novelty of the unfamiliar, but also to reevaluate my domestic routines. For one of my more recent excursions, I ventured to Las Vegas.

Las Vegas, New Mexico, that is, not the one in Nevada.

Located about 65 miles east of Santa Fe, Las Vegas is a small town with a population of about 14,000. Founded in 1835, Las Vegas was an important stop on the Santa Fe Trail. During its heyday in the railroad era of the late 19th century, it was one of the biggest towns in the Southwest, and had all the modern amenities one could desire, including an opera house and an electric street railway. It also attracted more than its fair share of legendary outlaws and other Old West characters, including Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday and his girlfriend Big Nose Kate, Billy the Kid, Jesse James, and others. On a more academic note, it is also the site of New Mexico Highlands University, where Elmer Schooley used to teach. Today, Las Vegas is a quaint town that has retained its Western flair, making it a popular area for filming. Movies such as Easy Rider, All the Pretty Horses, No Country for Old Men, and many others have been filmed here, whether in their entirety or in part. There are also some hot springs around that are open to the public, but I didn't have time to check those out.

Las Vegas is distinguished for its downtown plaza, which retains many of its 19th-century buildings:

I stayed in the historic Plaza Hotel, which was constructed in 1881 and is one of the more prominent buildings on the plaza. Apparently it was the site of the first Rough Rider reunion, which occurred in 1899.

Las Vegas is replete with great architecture. I had a grand time walking around and looking at the buildings.

Carnegie Library, 1904, the only surviving one still in use as a library in New Mexico.

There are also plenty of antique shops, where you can find oddities such as these two:

Yep, those are taxidermied frogs playing music.

In addition to walking around the town itself, I also visited a wildlife refuge. The birds by this time had already migrated, but it was still nice to get out and see some different scenery.

There used to be a body of water in the center, but it's evaporated.

And of course, I sketched. I'd forgotten my paintbrush again, so I alternated between fingerpainting and using colored pencils.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular Posts

Last January we kicked off the new year with a photography show that examinedthe New Mexico cultural landscape, New Mexico Vernacular: Architectural Portraits by Robert Christensen. This year, we're also with photography: Power: New Works by David Emitt Adams. Both photographers explore overlooked but critical elements of our cultural landscape, but their focus and approach is decidedly different.Whereas Christensenhighlights the gas stations, grocery stores, and other seemingly mundane structures that define everyday life,Arizona-based photographer David Emitt Adamsexplores the fuel that powers that life:oil.

Today we'll going to begin looking at a family of etchers that will take us through the end of the year: the Morans. Originally from England, the Morans came to the United States during the mid-nineteenth century, when industrialization essentially put an end to their livelihood as hand loomers. Several of the siblings achieved artistic success, usually within the genre of landscape, but the best known of this group is the artist we'll be discussing today, Thomas Moran (1837-1926).

Moran started out his artistic career apprenticing to Scattergood and Telfer, a wood engraving firm. During the 19th century, before photography had sufficiently evolved to become economically feasible, wood engraving was the most commonly used form of image reproduction. It provided the precision and detail of traditional metal engraving, but the use of wooden blocks made it a lot cheaper. Moran admittedly wasn't a fan of the process though, as engraving can be very time-consuming and repetitiv…

Today we'll be looking one of the 20th century's seminal etchers, Stanley William Hayter (1901-1988).

Originally from London, Hayter started out his career in the oil industry after earning his degrees in chemistry and geology. From 1922 to 1925, he worked for the Anglo-Persian Oil Company in Iran, until a bout with malaria forced him to return home. During this time of convalescence, he had a successful one-man show of his paintings and drawings, which may have inspired him to pursue a more artistic calling. Although he soon switched over to art, his chemical background would undoubtedly influence his later printmaking.

In 1926, Hayter went to study at the Academie Julian in Paris, and opened his own printmaking atelier, Atelier 17, in 1927. It was also during this time that he was introduced to Surrealism, particularly as interpreted by artists such as Yves Tanguy and Andre Masson. Their aesthetic would have a great impact on Hayter's own art. During the 1930s in parti…